Our Solar System

Planet Saturn

The second biggest, but for many people most beautiful planet in our Solar System. Saturn is 95 times more massive than our tiny Earth, but still just 30% of the mass of Jupiter. The rings consist of myriads of particles from the size of micrometres to a few metres and are mostly made of water, ice and rocks. Impressive as they are, the rings have an average thickness of just 20 metres.

Saturn mostly consists of hydrogen, but it is believed to have a solid core made of iron, nickel and rock, between 9 and 22 times the mass of the Earth. As with Jupiter, don't imagine Saturn as a sphere of gas. Saturn is more like a huge ocean of liquid metallic hydrogen, liquid hydrogen and liquid helium; and above this ocean there is an atmosphere of gas. Due to electric current flowing within the metallic hydrogen, all gas giants have a strong magnetic field. The strongest magnetic field in the solar system belongs to Jupiter; it is 14 times stronger than Saturn's magnetic field (which is similar in strength to that of the Earth).

Wind speeds in Saturn's atmosphere can reach 1800 km/h (or 1100 mph), making it the planet with the second strongest winds in our Solar System (after Neptune). For comparison: the Great Red Spot on Jupiter, a huge storm system that's been active for at least 200 years, has maximum wind speeds of 680 km/h at its edges. The strongest hurricanes on Earth reach 350 km/h over the open ocean. Saturn is the mother of one of the strangest storm systems in our Solar System: a hexagonal hurricane.

There are at least 150 moons and moonlets orbiting the planet; one of them (Titan) is the only moon in the Solar System with its own atmosphere and complex organic chemistry. There are clouds and rain showers on Titan, as well as lakes and rivers (even river deltas). In short it has weather patterns similar to those on Earth. Another fascinating moon of Saturn is Encedalus. View our image of Encedalus to understand why this moon is so interesting. If you could stand on one of them your view would be spectacular. Just the low temperatures would be disturbing; Saturn has a temperature of approximately -139 °C on its "surface", by which we mean its outer layer of gas.

Name

Saturn

Mean radius

58232 km

Suface area

83.7 Earths

Volume

763.6 Earths

Mass

95.152 Earths

Mean density

0.687 g/cm3

Equatorial surface gravity

10.44 m/s2(1.065 g)

Mean surface temperature

134 K (-139 °C)at 1 bar level

Oribital period

29.457 years

Rotation period

10h 34m

Axial tilt

26.73°

Aphelion

10.116 AU

Perihelion

9.048 AU

Mean distance from the Sun

9.592 AU

Click on an image below to see it full size

Saturn during Equinox

Saturn (Cassini image)

The Storm System at Saturn’s North...

The Storm System at Saturn’s North...

Encedalus

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